Reflections on a football legend

The dark storm clouds gathering above Split this morning capture the pain of Croatia's departure from Euro 2024 last night.

The manner of the exit in what was perhaps the maestro Luka Modric's last match tells a universal story not only of the cruelty of fate but ultimately of the triumph of hope against all odds.

Modric is 38, and visibly lined after a storied football career which began with the former war refugee as a child facing countless rejections for being too small, too slow and too weak. Despite this and through force of will and never-ending effort he turned himself into one of the most successful midfielders ever, leading the top club side in the world, Real Madrid, to unparalleled domination of the Champions League.

And he also took Croatia, a small country of barely four million people, to extraordinary success in international football, including second place in the 2018 World Cup and third in the 2022 World Cup.

Last night was perhaps his last chance for glory. Many of the Croatian greats who had accompanied him on the journey have already retired. Others like Brozovic and Perisic are in the final chapters of their careers and past their best. There is hope for the future but the young players are too inexperienced now.

This Croatian team, a blend of too old and too young, was not one of their best. They were out-classed 3-0 by Spain. A last second goal meant a shocking 2-2 draw with Albania. They went into the game last night needing a victory against the reigning European champions Italy to progress to the knockout stages.

Through much of the match, they laboured, like a great sprinter who was used to turning on the jets and accelerating away from the competition, only to find that age had robbed them of that extra gear.

But still they toiled away, and their chance finally came in the second half when they were awarded a penalty. Up stepped Modric. His moment.

The Italian keeper Donnarumma dived early and made the save. TV captured Modric's expression of horror and anguish, and the Croatian night outside rang with curses and pain.

Modric must have felt he had let the nation down. He must have envisioned the miss being seen as the final chapter in his career, of the failure even defining it.

But then something extraordinary happened. It was if his team-mates collectively said: we will not let this be. They were suddenly powered by almost superhuman energy, and as if carried by a divine wind they flew down the field, flinging the ball into the box, where Modric waited for his moment of redemption.

He smashed it into the back of the net and as he wheeled away there was bedlam in the stadium and outside across the nation. Redemption. Hope still alive.

That moment was somehow emblematic of Croatia's recent history, in which they came through the war of their independence with a collective spirit which refused to accept defeat. And of their unexpected footballing triumphs since independence, also fuelled by the same passion.

Of course, football being football, this was not the end. The referee, for reasons known only to himself, added 8 minutes of extra time. With Modric on the bench and gnawing at his shirt with nerves, in the final minute the Italians snatched a late equaliser to send the Croats out of the tournament. It was desperately unfair.

Afterwards, Modric was in tears and spoke of how cruel it was. He had been gifted the greatest triumphs, and now the same hand had dealt him a great blow.

But at least if his career ends now it will end not in failure, but injustice.

And I choose to remember it not by that injustice but by that one moment when his team-mates were carried by that hidden power, that force that said: whatever happens, we will never be defeated.

We have become very post-modern and very cynical in the West, and this kind of raw determination feels almost alien to us. But perhaps it can teach us something which we may have forgotten. It is, after all, this primal force which carried our ancestors through all the threats they faced throughout the ages from the very beginning of it all, and it may yet serve us well.